Erasmus Mundus reaches out to EU students

European students are to be offered scholarships to participate in the next phase of the EU’s Erasmus Mundus programme, according to proposals published by the European Commission in July.

When Erasmus Mundus began in 2004, as an offshoot of the well-established Erasmus programme, it funded cross-border co-operation between universities, but its financial support for students was limited to those coming from outside the EU and the other European countries associated with the programme.

The aim of Erasmus Mundus is to raise the quality of EU higher education at home and its profile abroad, supporting high-quality joint masters programmes involving universities in three or more EU states, with a complementary system of scholarships to help the best non-EU students take part in them.

While the programme has been judged successful, external reviewers have recommended that more needs to be done to encourage EU students to participate in the selected masters courses. Those courses can appear unattractive to EU students because they can have higher tuition fees than ‘national’ degrees and there will be additional costs for studying abroad. There is also a perception among EU students that Erasmus Mundus is the part of the Erasmus programme for international students and is not intended for them.

The proposed EU masters scholarships will vary according to the length of the course, but the reference level is expected to be €9,000 per year if a student studies exclusively within the EU, or €11,000 per year if they spend a period in a third country institution. The reference level for overseas students is €24,000 per year.

Over the course of the programme, in 2009-13, the Commission plans to offer 3,448 scholarships to EU masters students and 5,272 to overseas students. The aim is to support 150 masters courses in all, a significant increase on the 105 supported in the present funding programme.

Allowing non-European institutions to become part of the degree consortia is another innovation proposed by the Commission and the funds available at present to bring overseas academics to Europe will be matched by a scheme to allow EU academics to travel outside the EU to teach or carry out research.

But the largest change is the expansion of the programme to include doctoral courses.

It is envisaged that 35 doctoral courses will be supported in 2009-13, with scholarships for EU and external candidates. To qualify, a doctorate should be offered by universities from at least three different European countries and include other relevant partners "to ensure innovation and employability", the Commission says. Universities from outside Europe may also be involved. Students must study and carry out research in at least two of the three institutions and for European participants a trip to an overseas partner institution would be obligatory.

All of this will require a significant jump in the budget, from €230m in 2004-08 to €494m in 2009-13. As well as the Erasmus Mundus programmes and scholarships, these funds will cover initiatives to raise the profile of EU higher education abroad, including an Erasmus Mundus alumni association. Additionally, the next phase of Erasmus Mundus is expected to have up to €460m from the EU’s external co-operation budget for broader higher education partnerships with strategically important areas of the world such as China and India.

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

European students are to be offered scholarships to participate in the next phase of the EU’s Erasmus Mundus programme, according to proposals published by the European Commission in July.